The shadow housing secretary has endorsed calls for “beauty” to be put at the heart of the Government’s planning policy with the creation of “high-density” neighbourhoods through mid-rise developments.
The proposals are from a Policy Exchange report which argues the National Planning Policy Framework should be changed to mandate “provable consideration” of mansion blocks as the “preferred” housing type for “all mid-rise and high-rise residential scenarios”.
The right-leaning think tank said mid-rise housing should also be set “as the new statutory default for urban densification” with an onus on local authorities and developers to “present arguments to the contrary” in individual cases.
“Solving the housing crisis won’t just be about increasing housing supply, it will be about increasing residential density too,” it said.
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But the report warned against “some of the negative consequences experienced in the past” such as “urban sprawl”, “inappropriate greenfield development” and “social alienation”.
It said: “Mansion blocks are synonymous with exclusive areas of central London but their unrivalled ability to house vast numbers of people within a traditional architectural template that is sympathetic to the street and significantly less expensive to build than tower blocks makes them an ideal candidate to lead any meaningful increase in housing supply and residential density.
“Bland spreadsheet boxitecture” should be swapped for “exceptional design and a renewed focus on aesthetics to avoid urban monotony and maintain human scale”, the report said.
Features of some contemporary residential architecture can serve to “deeply ingrain a noxious identikit incongruity into a urban landscape” which “ruins skylines”, “harms heritage”, and “alienates residents”, the think tank said.
“Beauty is the solution to eradicating all these ills and there can be no programme of committed urban densification without it,” the report says.
Labour has committed to building 1.5 million new homes over the course of the Parliament, with proposed planning rules set to include a minimum density of 40 dwellings per hectare around all stations.
It has cited Edwardian mansion blocks among the inspirations for the kinds of homes it would like to build, though the Government has dropped a Tory requirement to build “beautiful” homes from planning guidelines.
Endorsing Policy Exchange’s report, Conservative frontbencher Sir James said: “Britain once created some of the most successful high-density neighbourhoods in the world, and then we stopped building them.
“Places like Marylebone, Kensington and Maida Vale are not dense because of tower blocks and high-rise, but because of mansion blocks and mid-rise streets that combine character and community.”
He said beauty was “not a luxury – it’s the foundation of places that endure, attract investment and win local support”.
A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesperson said: “We are pulling every lever we have to build the 1.5 million homes we need and end the housing crisis we’ve inherited.
“That’s why our overhaul of the planning system supports high density development and will ensure homes are well-designed, in the right places, and properly connected to the infrastructure people need.”